Algeria’s state-owned Sonatrach oil company has concluded two contracts, worth $161 million, which will result in the construction of an 822-km oil pipeline from the Haoudh el Hamra oilfields to the refining terminal port of Arzew on the Mediterranean, reported the country’s official APS news agency.

The first contract, worth $83 million, involves the first stage of the project, and was signed by Sonatrach and a U.S.-Algerian consortium that included Cosider—a state-run engineering and construction company and an Algerian affiliate of the U.S. contractor Kellog Brown and Root.

The first stage includes the initial 419-km of the pipeline, from Haoudh el Hamra to the city of Laghouat.

The second contract, worth $78 million, was signed by Sonatrach and the Russian Stroitransga company. It involves the construction 403 km of pipeline, from Laghouat to Arzew.

Reuters reports that a $32 million contract to build oil pumping facilities along the pipeline is currently being negotiated between Spie Capag of France Saipem, a subsidiary of Italy's ENI. – (Albawaba-MEBG)